


Those Missing 5 Years

by Nanenna



Series: WDG 102 [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Lots of tags about Gaster on this site XD, M/M, Mpreg, Pre-Accident W. D. Gaster, Skeleton Pregnancy (Undertale), Teen Pregnancy, Unethical Experimentation, W. D. Gaster Being An Asshole, W. D. Gaster is not related to Skelebros, well... monsters but they're people so same dif
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-14 08:36:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16909683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanenna/pseuds/Nanenna
Summary: A summary of the years Sans spent under Gaster's care.





	Those Missing 5 Years

**Author's Note:**

> I got the first two chapters written, just the rough drafts. It was... too difficult. I don't know why this story chose me, I wish it had chosen anyone else to write it. I can't, I'm not strong enough, I don't know if I ever will be and honestly I don't want to be able to. So here, have the summary instead.

**9 Years Old**

 

Sans is caught by the Royal Guard. He, along with two other street children, are taken to the Royal Scientist’s laboratory where they are processed for becoming test subjects. Sans’s 2 LV along with his impossibly low 1 HP are discovered, Gaster is intrigued by this seeming impossibility and has his initials appended onto Sans’s IDN, marking Sans as a special test subject. Test subject processing proceeds as normal from there: all their stats are written down, then the children are washed and fed and put to bed.

* * *

The next day Sans and the other children are told how things are going to be from now on: making their own beds, lining up by IDN with the other underage test subjects, going to the playroom where they’ll spend most of their time, having the rules laid out for them, etc...

In the afternoon Sans goes to his first session, where he is ordered to summon monster bullets. He is incapable due to being malnourished and proceeds to have an anxiety attack. Gaster states this is to be expected and tells Sans he gets a reward (food) for being so well behaved and sends him back to the playroom with the other underage test subjects. The next session is scheduled a month from then.

* * *

There are several caretakers for the underage test subjects as no one monster could possibly be expected to care for all of them 24/7. Thus it was as one caretaker was being warned about the new test subjects at the beginning of her shift that she recognizes Sans and calls him “Garamond.” Sans reacts violently and attacks the caretaker, Gabriola. Due to still being weak from being malnourished, Sans resorts to using his fists, leaving Gabriola with a broken clavicle. 

Due to Sans being a special interest test subject, Gaster is forced to deal with the incident himself. It is discovered that Gabriola is one of Sans’s parents, that Sans’s other parent, Times New Roman, is still living, and Sans has two younger siblings. Gaster is eager to take this chance to get more accurate background data on Sans as well as a family history and samples from the family members. Gabriola is given the choice of complying and keeping a job (though she will be reassigned to keep her away from Sans) or refusing and not only losing her job but having the data collected forcefully anyway. Gabriola complies. From this data Gaster will conclude that Sans’s stats are not something he inherited and that his family will provide no useful data for Sans’s condition.

* * *

A day in the life of Sans, or a montage of a day in the life of Sans. Get up, make the bed, go to breakfast, wash up and fresh clothes, playroom (where Sans spends most of his time trying to introvert away from all the loud, rambunctious children), lunch, back to the playroom, a child gets called away and they expect them to eventually show back up (they don’t), dinner, shower and fresh nightclothes, then bed. After lights out the children comment on the one who didn’t come back.

* * *

Sans goes to his second session where he is again ordered to summon a monster bullet, he’s able to this time. Then he’s ordered to summon more and more bullets, Sans obediently does so until he reaches his limit. After being allowed a moment to recover, Sans is ordered to attack a lab mouse brought out for him. Sans does so and only does a measly -1 HP. It takes some time but Sans eventually kills it, then another is brought out (this time already damaged to expedite things). The second mouse is enough EXP to raise Sans’s LV to 3, all while several scientists have in depth stat trackers pointed at him. They flicker and/or static for a moment, but Sans’s stats stubbornly remain 1 across the board. Sans is told he did a good job, is given a reward (food), and sent back to the playroom.

* * *

At Sans’s next session he is injected with a small dose of DT. The injection burns painfully, but otherwise is a success and Sans is left to recover for a while despite no longer feeling the effects less than an hour after the injection. Before his next session he is told that “TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY.” Sans has a lackluster response, then he’s told to memorize the date and his age.

 

**10 Years Old**

 

At Sans’s next session he’s told to kill lab mice again, increasing his LV to 4. His stats again flicker but otherwise don’t change. “GOOD JOB”, reward, back to the new normal.

* * *

New toys are brought in for the underage test subjects, Sans picks up a particularly interesting looking one (perhaps a new book?). One of the other children wants it and tries to take it from Sans, this escalates into a Fight and one of the caretakers is injured in the crossfire. 

Gaster is required to be involved again and questions Sans on what happened. Sans admits to hating the playroom: the other children are too loud and too energetic, he finds the toys and books boring, the caretakers tend to ignore them unless something drastic is happening. Gaster tells Sans that so long as he is quiet and well behaved he can sit in Gaster’s office while he does paperwork. Sans makes no protest and is just as quiet and well behaved as Gaster could hope. Sans now spends his mornings in Gaster’s office and his afternoons back in the playroom.

* * *

Gaster has been doing experiments to power up monster souls with magic energy directly from the Core for years using specially designed emitters. Gaster is curious how the process will affect someone as anomalous as Sans, thus the next session is Sans’s first emitter session. While Sans is being strapped in he is warned the procedure will likely be uncomfortable, Sans obediently accepts this.

  
Once the emitter is started Sans cringes and gasps, but otherwise doesn’t complain. Then Sans passes out and Gaster calls for the emitter to be powered down. Once Sans regains consciousness and is questioned by Gaster he admits the emitter had been painful from the beginning. Gaster then has to explain the difference between “uncomfortable” and “painful” to Sans to ensure this does not happen again.

* * *

After Sans has some time to recover, he is taken to another emitter session. This time the emitter is started on the lowest setting and slowly raised while Gaster asks Sans how he feels and if the emitter is causing pain. His personal setting is found and marked down, then how long he can sit at that setting before it starts hurting is also found. Sans’s personal settings are about half (intensity and time wise) of the average setting other test subjects are subjected to. Gaster hypothesizes this is because Sans’s soul is too weak to absorb too much energy too quickly. Thus begins Sans’s biweekly emitter sessions. 

* * *

At the next emitter session Gaster keeps Sans engaged by asking him to recite simple things, like the alphabet. Sans gets through about the first half okay, then starts to struggle. This is when Gaster finds out Sans doesn’t know the order of the alphabet (though Sans insists he knows the letters and can read, he just doesn’t know the order). That evening Gaster actually leaves the lab, he goes to a shop find an alphabet book to give to Sans, but Gaster finds all the ones available to be too cutesy and baby friendly, he finds them condescending and (rightfully) thinks Sans would feel the same. Instead Gaster buys an empty notebook and sharpies and writes his own alphabet book, formulas included.

Acceleration, buoyancy, circumference, diameter, energy, force, (universal) gravitational constant, height, inertia, Joules, Kelvin (temperature), line, mass, number, ohm, power (in watts or Joules), quark, radius, speed (meters/second), temperature, unit, volume, watts, xylophone (it’s always a xylophone), yottabyte, zero.

* * *

While doing paperwork one day, Gaster notices Sans watching him rather than reading the open book in his lap. Sans admits the book is boring, all the books he’s been given are boring, he’s read them all several times and they’re fast reads. Gaster looks over the books he keeps in his office, all of them scientific reference books, and gives Sans the lowest level one he can find. That night he goes out and buys workbooks for several grades and a few children’s novels for Sans.

* * *

As the emitter sessions go on Sans becomes more alert, more awake, and more active. He’s still rather sedentary for a child, but he is less prone to taking naps whenever he can get away with them. Gaster writes this in his notes with excitement, the emitter seems to be doing something, maybe even enough to change Sans’s stats.

 

**11 Years Old**

 

Satisfied with how much more powerful Sans’s soul must be by now (no direct way to measure that aside from stats, most other monsters powered up by the emitter have a small increase in at least one stat), Gaster orders Sans to kill lab mice until his LV increases again. Sans is now 5 LV, his stats stubbornly remain the same.

* * *

Gaster has started taking notes on Sans’s progress with his “schooling,” noting what grade of workbooks Sans is in and how quickly he’s working through them and which subjects he seems to excel at. These notes are included with the rest of his test subject paperwork despite no other test subject, even those with his initials appended onto their IDNs, having any attention paid to their mental growth or education.

* * *

One of the goals Asgore has given to Gaster is to develop weapons for monsters to use against humans once they finally break the barrier, Gaster has developed several such “super monster bullets” for various monster subspecies. Out of curiosity Gaster decides to give one to Sans. The procedure is done by grafting a small pellet of magic (called a module) containing instructions (called “coding”) directly onto Sans’s soul. Since souls can’t be removed from a monster without killing them, it’s a delicate and difficult task. Sans has to be put under an anesthetic and his rib cage cut open. The procedure goes well and Sans is left to recover for a few weeks while his rib cage heals.

After he’s deemed recovered, Sans is taken to the Fight practice room and taught how to use his new super bullets. Sans handles the blasters just fine. Now Sans gets to spend time in the Fight practice room where he throws bones and shoots blasters at dummies. Since he has energy to spare now he actually finds it rather fun, so long as he gets to just stand in place while doing it.

 

**12 Years Old**

 

With the success of the blaster implantation, Gaster decides to attempt something more ambitious. It takes a lot of time, effort, late nights, coffee, and testing, but Gaster manages to code a module that will raise Sans’s stats to within the average of a young monster with 5 LV. The procedure goes smoothly, once successfully inserted Sans’s stats slowly start to rise and Gaster preens.

Then his stats crash and Sans starts screaming despite still being under anesthetic. The module and the area of Sans’s soul around it go dark. Failed module inserts do that, it’s called “partial soul death” and leaves the few survivors very weak. It’s very touch and go for a while, no one’s sure if Sans will survive, but eventually he stabilizes. His stats remain steady at 1 across the board.

* * *

Sans spends a few weeks on forced bed rest despite his insistence that he feels fine, then even longer under near constant observation as he slowly is allowed to resume the regular routine. Sans’s doctor constantly getting on his nerves and being a condescending asshole isn’t helping the situation.

* * *

Perhaps out of guilt, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of a genuine desire to help Sans, Gaster decides to use the new emitters the engineering team had just built the final version of on Sans. This new emitter is supposed to be able to beam Core energy with pinpoint accuracy, able to target specific areas of the soul rather than the organ as a whole. This is to allow them to better study which parts of the soul do what. Gaster hopes pointing it as the dead part of Sans’s soul will help revive it. Sadly partial soul death leaves few survivors and there are no others to test it on first, but the math and simulations all look very promising.

When the session starts Sans whimpers and says the emitter is hurting him, like the first one did only worse. Gaster says it’s on the equivalent setting and shouldn’t be hurting him. Sans insists that it is. Gaster orders the emitter be turned down to its lowest setting, before that can happen Sans throws back his head and wails, mouth so wide open it looks dislocated, left eye blazing like a super nova. There’s a loud crack that echoes off the concrete walls and floor.

Gaster orders an emergency shut down. Before the emitter is even done powering down Gaster is already at Sans’s side, frantically pulling the straps off. Then Sans is rushed to the medical ward where he’s even more touch and go than last time. But again: he lives

* * *

Sans’s recovery takes a long time. There’s extensive bruising around the eye, a fracture that runs from his missing tooth, through his eye, and up to his forehead, the missing tooth is never found, and a brightly glowing fissure across his soul. Sans is stuck on bed rest for so long he starts snarking back at the doctor, so much so that the doctor grows too disgusted to stick around. Thus begins the quest to find a doctor that Sans doesn’t drive away.

Once Sans is off bed rest Gaster worries being around rambunctious underage test subjects (most of whom are younger than Sans anyway) will be too dangerous for his still healing wounds. Sans gets to start hanging around with Gaster’s employees in their offices and meeting rooms. Usually he ends up listening to the theoretical physicists as they discuss ways to quantum physics their way around the barrier or the meta physicists and their theories on the power of the human soul. Even once Sans is declared recovered this stays as the new norm.

 

**13 years old**

 

Now that Sans is spending his “off” time hanging out in other parts of the Lab, he starts putting his knowledge of who Gaster does or doesn’t like to the test. He starts small: sarcasm and snark. Then he starts testing his boundaries more and more: openly back talks and insults several scientists while being at the very least polite to others, his first attempts at pranks (once the concept is formally introduced to him). Gaster gets lots of complaints.

Sans also gets to start observing other test subjects’ sessions. He’s very eager when he finds out one of the adult criminal test subjects is scheduled for his “last emitter session.” Sans is allowed to sit in the observation room, where the controls for the emitter are kept. He watches as they crank it to full blast and the test subject’s soul shatters, followed quickly by a pile of dust.

* * *

Sans is introduced to his newest doctor: Dr. Verdana, one of the doctors for Gaster’s staff (one of the perks of working for THE Royal Scientist: health care!). Right before being introduced Gaster warns Sans to be nice to her, so of course Sans is. Since she’s the first doctor to treat Sans like any other patient rather than a piece of property or an idiot he actually genuinely likes her and genuinely gets along with her.

* * *

During Sans’s first check up with her, Dr. Verdana tells him he’s starting puberty and needs to learn about the “”“wonders”“” of it. Your magic fluctuates, your bones change, sudden growth spurts, aching joints, strange smells… it all sounds awful. Verdana agrees, it is awful. She gives him reading material and tells him to ask her any questions he has.

( _Oh joy_ , writing a child’s first attempts at flirting… with a man 4 times his age ~~FML~~ Though that probably won’t happen right after being told the joys of puberty, it will start before he turns 14)

* * *

While Sans is sitting in the back of the room while the theoretical physicists are group brainstorming one day, Sans notices one of them copying a formula from a ratty, torn up, water damaged book onto one of the boards. He takes his first shortcut (to Gaster’s office since it’s so familiar to him).

* * *

Sans spends some time testing his new ability, eventually even making it out of the lab and into the general Underground. Sans is delighted with this freedom, but goes back to the Lab because it’s familiar and also he’s guaranteed food and a warm bed. This, of course, gets the attention of pretty much the entire Royal Science division. Gaster drops all his work and immediately sets about “coding” a tracking module to be inserted as soon as possible. He’s nervous about inserting it, Gaster has never modified someone already suffering from partial soul death before, but Sans is too valuable a test subject to be wandering around. Gaster goes through with the insertion, fortunately nothing goes wrong this time.

* * *

Once Sans recovers from his newest modification all the physicists are clamoring to talk to Sans. They’re eager to hook up all manner of recording devices to him and have him show off his new power and beg him to explain it. Sans does so to the best of his ability, but no one else is capable of duplicating his “trick” even if they understand the theory behind it. 

The scientist with the astronomy book (a lucky find in the dump) decides to give it to Sans in the hopes he can develop more interesting “tricks.” Sans does so, being the first monster to use blue magic to change an opponent’s gravity rather than just subjecting their soul to it. Now the weapons development team is eager for Sans’s time.

While the above is going on Sans figures out he can “tug” on his tracker module, which both tells him where Gaster is and Gaster where Sans is simultaneously. This means he can tug the tracker if he wants Gaster’s attention, often right before just teleporting to his location. Gaster finds this incredibly inconvenient and gives Sans a phone with the orders of not using the tracker outside of emergencies.

* * *

Sans leaves the Lab whenever he feels like it (bored, overwhelmed by the attention, curious, whatever), usually only to be dragged back by the Royal Guard once they catch him (or they don’t and he goes back just to avoid them). Gaster finds this incredibly frustrating and eventually gives up on keeping Sans contained to just the Lab. Gaster lays down some rules: Sans must keep every appointment/session scheduled and return to the Lab every night, but otherwise Gaster will let him do what he wants.

Sans is delighted with this freedom and happily wanders around the Underground, pickpocketing and stealing for fun. Usually he’ll take food, sometimes small trinkets, if he pickpockets money he’ll buy food or small trinkets. He keeps the trinkets in a hoard under his bed or hidden in stashes around the Lab.

* * *

One of the scientists gives Sans a gift, wrapped up and everything. It’s a collar declaring Sans as Gaster’s pet. Gaster is mildly disgusted by the thing, the other scientists (the ones who Sans always sasses or pranks anyway) all jeer and laugh, Sans proudly puts it on.

 

**14 Years Old**

 

The status quo continues on for a while: biweekly emitter sessions (with the old style emitters), appointments with the departments interested in his abilities, doctor’s appointments, etc… The theoretical physicists have gathered enough data to design a machine attempting to duplicate Sans’s teleportation and work begins on building it.

* * *

At one of Sans’s regular check ups Verdana discovers Sans is pregnant (not hard, skeleton pregnancies tend to be very, very obvious). Verdana chooses not to tell Sans what’s going on and instead goes straight to Gaster. She tells him what’s going on and recommends the pregnancy be terminated due to Sans’s young age (and throws in a stink eye for good measure). Gaster agrees, but isn’t looking forward to having to tell Sans that.

When Gaster calls Sans into his office to explain to him what’s going on and what he and Verdana agreed was the best course of action, Sans refuses and teleports away.

* * *

Sans spends three days away from the Lab.

During that time he is constantly tugging the tracker right before teleporting to a different spot, usually half way across the Underground. At first Gaster is constantly calling the Guard with updates on Sans’s whereabouts, but quickly realizes how futile that is. Sans even goes back into the Lab to steal supplies (food, blankets, clothes, etc…), but is in and out so fast they don’t have time to catch him.

After the third day Sans shows up inside Gaster’s office to give his ultimatum: let him keep the baby or this continues. Gaster points out that Sans won’t be able to keep this up forever, but Sans counters that he doesn’t need to, just long enough that the baby will be too far along to abort. Gaster gives in.

* * *

When Verdana is informed of this change in plans she hands over an already prepared outline of everything Sans is going to need (new diet, new restrictions, and a new check up schedule). Emitter sessions are canceled until further notice, Sans is basically moved into Gaster’s private “nap room.” (One floor is dedicated to temporary sleeping quarters for those that don’t make it out before the nightly elevator shutdown, also useful for those pulling all nighters. While Gaster has a home he can return to, he spends just as much time in one such “nap room” that he basically took it over as his own.) It’s pretty comfortable and affords Sans some privacy he wouldn’t get living in the underage test subject ward.

* * *

Things continue on in this new norm until one day Gaster and the quantum physics team do the first test run of the teleportation machine. It doesn’t go well.


End file.
